Peak Oil is starting to be understood across a broad spectrum, but the direct connection between peak oil, climate change and the American market-led attempt to squeeze all energy out of Alberta cannot be overstated. The smaller the global supply of oil gets, the more CO2 has been emitted and the more climate change will have advanced. This leads to more interest in the tar sands—because the profit margin goes ever higher the fewer alternatives there are for petroleum. Without Peak Oil bearing down on humanity, no economical reason would exist to produce this energy intensive, low-output petrol.
Mankind can't afford more oil drilling-ex-BP exec
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Known oil, gas and coal reserves may already contain a quarter more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change, putting the value of new oil exploration in doubt, said a former oil major executive.
The oil industry may be wasting $50 billion annually searching for new fields, said Jan-Peter Onstwedder, formerly BP's most senior risk manager. He left BP in December.
Oilsands future looks rosy
Production from unconventional source expected to gain supremacy
John Morrissy, Canwest News Service
Published: 1:31 am
OTTAWA - Canada's oilsands are taking over where conventional oil production left off, with profits in the oil-extraction industry rising 18 per cent to a record $23 billion in 2008 on rapidly rising output from the huge oil reserves, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
Chávez's Oil Threats Slick but Not Solid
Halting Exports Would Hurt Venezuela More Than U.S.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, center, has threatened to halt oil sales to the United States.
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2008; Page D01
How Crude
Midwest refineries source more crude from tar sands; emissions will rise
Posted at 12:39 PM on 12 Feb 2008
Associated Press February 10, 2008
Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US
Venezuelan President Threatens to Cut Off Oil Sales to US, Calls Exxon Mobil
'Outlaws'
By Sandra Sierra, Associated Press Writer
Caracas, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut
off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp.
wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de
Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the
Dirty oil tricks
Peter Foster, Financial Post Published: Saturday, February 09, 2008
So much for any suggestion that press baron Rupert Murdoch is a right-wing dinosaur, or that his media empire is out of step with the eco-zeitgeist. First he announces that News Corp. will become "carbon neutral" by 2010. Now his flagship British organ, The Times of London, has started crusading against Alberta 's oilsands.
February 8, 2008
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions
than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these
"green" fuels are taken into account, two studies being published
Thursday have concluded.
The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent
months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental
cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the
prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.
Strategic Petroleum Reserves
It's Not Nice to Let Eastern Canadians Freeze in the Dark
GORDON LAXER
The Globe and Mail
February 7, 2008 - Page A19
When Cape Bretoners were hit with a furnace-oil shortage in December as the
result of an early winter and late-arriving fuel tanker, it concentrated the
mind: With icy winter now gripping Canada, isn't it time to counter the
threat of longer and more widespread oil shortages in the near future?
Canada is usually an avid joiner of international conventions. But we're the
Big oil stokes the fires for the planet to burn
BP promised to go 'beyond petroleum'. But carbon remains at the heart of big energy firms
February 7, 2008 12:01 AM
There is a parallel universe in operation out there. Politicians try to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, while business executives lay plans to expand their carbon footprint.
Capitalism and Peak Oil: The Perfect Storm
by Jim Lydecker
Napa Valley Register (January 18 2008)
Americans have recently become aware of converging crises that can end life as we know it, though experts have been warning us for many years.
For example, many economists have been warning for decades of the severe consequences resulting from runaway national debt and an imbalance of trade. And the current mortgage/liquidity crisis was first discussed in the early 1990s by a number of financial experts.
